And there are several more cucumbers that are almost mature.  Have I mentioned I love summer?  The heat, the sun, the produce.....  *sigh*  I wish I lived in an area where it was summer all year round... 

While you may not be able to tell from the menu, four of the six meals are crock pot meals.  It's in the nineties, finally, and I am NOT in the mood to start up my oven to add more heat.  Any other crock pot lovers out there?  Aren't they wonderful??

I also started something new today - the second month of ChaLEAN Extreme.  ChaLEAN Extreme (or CLX for short) is a free weights based program lead by Chalene Johnson - the same guru who brought us all TurboFire.  I am LOVING it!  I haven't lost a whole lot of weight (3.2 pounds) or inches (2.6 total), but check out the following graphs:

As you can see, I've made tremendous gains in strength over the last four weeks.  Oh, and yes, I know I'm a bit of a geek.  Did I mention I was a bit of a dataphile?  If I can track it, I track it.....and then some.  

Oops, I digressed again!  The first month of CLX is all about your base in strength.  She takes you through 9 exercises in each Burn Circuit DVD with a goal of failure at 10-12 reps.  Each of the three DVDs targets different areas, and you end up working every muscle through the week.  As you can see, her method works in building strength.  

The next phase - the one I started today - is truly challenging.  She pushes for failure much faster, to really increase muscle mass.  Before you give me the standard excuse about "bulking up," let me tell you that Chalene's slogan of Muscle Burns Fat is absolutely true.  Increased muscle = increased metabolism = increased lean mass = decreased fat.  Who WOULDN'T want more muscle?

Want to try it?  Click here for more information: